Selling city real estate deserves careful debate

Cape Town's plan to auction two of its public assets forces us to ask what kind of city we want to build

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he Good Hope Centre is finally expected to go up for sale, and to be honest, it is long overdue. The City of Cape Town has announced that it plans to auction about 50 City-owned properties early next year, and many people hope this site will be on that list. It has earned a second life, and the surrounding precinct deserves a real upgrade.

The building has struggled for almost 20 years. I once went to a John Newman concert there, and it was depressing. The acoustics were terrible and even the singer commented on the state of the venue. That night confirmed to me that the site has been underperforming for far too long.

The Good Hope Centre itself is a beautiful piece of history, with a classic domed exhibition hall designed by Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi. The first discussions between Nervi and the City took place in 1964. The project was approved in the next decade, and it finally opened in 1977.

The site is 2.4 hectares. It includes the central dome, three adjoining halls and both surface and underground parking.

There is heritage to respect, and any future developer will need to work with that. Keeping the iconic dome is an obvious requirement.

But outside the heritage, the opportunity is massive. Residential, commercial and retail can all work well here in a mixed-use development.

From one point of view, the argument for selling seems straightforward. The City cannot unlock the full economic potential of a site like this on its own. Redeveloping a complex, strategically located property takes specialised skill, time and money, and that usually comes from the private sector.